Melody Gardot

The free iTunes song of the week is amazing! I like jazz, but I have never exactly fallen in love with it. Until I met Miss Gardot. This girl is about my age and is simply a dream to listen to. Plus she is hot. In a classy sort of way...

Frowning?

Today my friend Shannin asked me to wrinkle my forehead, so I wrinkled my forehead. Then she asked me to frown, I did that too. She started laughing at me and I had no idea why! Turns out it was because I wrinkled my forehead and lowered my eyebrows to frown - not frowning in her book. Not frowning in her roommate's book either. Not frowning for my roommate either. They all said that frowning is a sad look or facial expression. I asked my friend Chad what :( means -- he said it means frowning. WHAT!?! Everyone was laughing not with me, but at me because I had been in the dark for almost 21 years about what frowning was/meant. I was staggered, shocked, incredulous. So then I did some research. According to Wikipedia, the most trusted source of information in the entire world....

A frown (also known as a scowl) is a facial expression used to indicate displeasure, or disapproval.

The appearance of a frown varies from culture to culture. Although most technical definitions define it as a wrinkling of the brow, in the USA it is primarily thought of as an expression of the mouth. In those cases when used iconically, as with an emoticon, it is entirely presented as a curve of the lips facing away from the eyes ('down').

It most commonly expresses sadness, dissatisfaction, anger, worry or pain.

OK then!! What I want to know is from what culture did I get this idea of lowering my eyebrows and wrinkling my forehead to frown? Obviously I cannot use this expression around my American friends... You never know when someone may ask you to frown!

So what do you think? Does frowning mean this: :-( or this >:-|

Heavy Load

Sometimes I think I am in over my head. It's probably my own stupid fault. I procrastinate on nearly everything I possibly could. I use stickies widgets as my organizer - not very efficient. I am not sure if I even have a job this summer besides part-time at Office Depot. I have not met with an adviser regarding summer or fall classes, much less actually registering for them. I blow countless hours on facebook, then blow some more on blogger (justifying it because it is not facebook). My co-worker's 19 year-old son just passed away in his sleep and I went to the visitation. Pretty sobering and saddening, I am unsure of where he was with God. Which makes it all even harder. Now that the weather seems to be taking a turn towards summer, I am starting to miss St. Joseph and the beach and good friends and Sawyer and sunsets. I hope to get back as much as I can when I can. But through it all, God is faithful - I just hope I can keep with it and finish this semester strong. I am looking forward to NA this memorial day weekend! I know God always has so much in store for us at that conference!

When the red flags go up

Have you ever done something that, after the fact, made you think about where you are at and where you are headed? This just happened to me. After completely (and illegally) abusing a particular drink with friends who I know are not walking with Christ, feeling absolutely terrible the next day and having to leave work because of it, I wonder what happened. How did I come to this? How can I claim to be a follower of my Savior, while going against His word in front of people who don't know Him?


Needless to say, some things need to change. I am desperately needing more time with Him and His word and less time spent with facebook, movies, crappy music, sleeping, etc... What really blows my mind is that I left my Bible in my friend's van over 3 weeks ago - and it is still there! What glaring evidence of my lack of seeking Him. Not to say the past few weeks have been completely dry - but they certainly demonstrated some serious downfalls on my part. I listened to a sermon from Josh Harris on the drive home last week. It was on this passage in Jeremiah 29:11-13:

10 "For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

The biggest thing I got from his message on this passage was this: God's good plan starts right where we are. So many times I find myself thinking "oh, once I am settled with a family and a job and a house, that is when I can really serve God and others around me." Somehow I think that I need to be in a certain place with certain things around me to be effective and useful. But what about right now? God doesn't call us to wait around until things are "perfectly set in place" for us to serve. He doesn't need us to wait until we get to Africa or Mexico or Europe to witness, serve, build relationships, and see amazing things happen. All of that can and should be happening right here, right now, where I am. There are over 25,000 other people around my age in this area right now. Could you ask for a better set-up?! Why am I getting drunk with these people instead of reaching out to them? This is so convicting, but why is it so acceptable? There are too many Christians who, including myself, shrug off this behavior and make up lame justifications for it. My good friend Norm challenged me with this scripture today:

Romans 12:1-2 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I don't think that Paul was telling us to just go with the flow and blend in with everyone around us here. I think he was reminding us to be radical, or radically changed. This just scratches the surface of what is running through my head right now, there is so much more that God has convicted me about! I am incredibly thankful for people He has brought into my life to challenge me, inspire me, and encourage me.